User blog:Madamwest/Leveling Guide
If you're looking for advice on how to level quickly or if you're looking for new leveling spots while you are AFK (away from keyboard), here's a bullet point guide for newbies on how to level from Lv 1 to Lv 110 in an efficient way. Most veteran players know these tips already but it could also be useful to them to level an alt... In one of the sections below, I'm also introducing the concept of AFK teams in Team Finder as a way to level fast. Take some time to consider if that could work well on your server. __TOC__ 'General Leveling Tips' Before getting specific, let's have a look at some general leveling tips that are useful at any level. ''Daily Routine'' Here are the daily tasks that will give you a good amount EXP (in order of importance): #Warrior's Trial (Pet EXP, max coin gain and takes less time) or Powersweep (No Pet EXP, fewer net coins gained, takes more time but lets you do dailies simultaneously.) Do WT every day, it helps! #Derby Race : At lower levels, this is a quick way to get % even if you get the lowest prize (consolation pack). #Daily quests (they're especially useful to level if you have more than the standard amount of daily resets (5+), if you are a STAR/cash player. They're also a good way to level your pets! ;) #Events (RTW, DD, AR mainly) #Astral Realm/Trials (aka "AT") #Land of Purity (aka "The Hot Springs" or "pool" ) Leveling fast also has to do with the order in which you do your daily tasks according to the server time and the amount of hours you can spend online and AFK. Figure out the most efficient order according to your playing time. ''Notes about Events, Gear & Enhancement'' In general, as a new player, you have to keep a balance between different elements in the game. As you level your character, you should flip your cards, train your pets, do pet summon, draw/fuse a few souls every day, not to mention collecting your daily and activity rewards, etc. Keep doing as many rounds of RTW, DD, AR, Deadliest Hunt everyday, you'll need these later on to get achievements and stat boosting titles. Doing these things every day will pay off after a while. Do as much as you can to reach higher levels of WT as you progress in level but don't go out of your way to get titles before lvl 70 in my opinion. Your character's equipment is also important but you generally shouldn't worry about having the best quality gear or crafting Grade A sets until you reach lvl 70. If you're leveling an alt, my main advice would be this: Before lvl 70, focus on EXP most of all, don't worry too much about getting the best gear or upgrading it until you reach lvl 70. What some players do is to craft 4 slot pieces from the lvl 50 set and they craft the four other slot pieces from the lvl 60 set to make sure their character is competitive in WT. Mind you, you could get some Grade A lvl 40 gear or a Lv 50 set gear (the one you craft with blueprints & mats) and keep it until you reach level 70. Upgrading your gear would slow you down, focus on EXP. If however, you want to reach higher levels of WT (Warrior's Trials) before getting to Lv 70, you may want to spend some time getting Grade A set gear in addition to upgrading your cards, souls, enhancing your gear. It depends on your playing style. If you've accumulated a lot of Equipment Essences (EEs) I, II or III, you could enhance your equipment and save on the first roll. Don't worry too much about a mimimum enhancement %, it would only waste EEs. Focus on enhancing all 8 equipment pieces to level 12, regardless of the level of the equipment. Once you reach Lv 70, you'll degrade the gear to get better one anyways and you'll get the EEs back by doing so. ''AFK Experience Depending on how much play time you have, you could leave your character on Auto-Combat in an outside area to get a few more percentages of experience while you're sleeping or '''A'way F'rom the '''K'eyboard (AFK). I discuss which outside areas are best according to your level in the "Leveling Areas" section below. '''Notes: *There are two ways to go about it when you are leveling in fields ("outside" areas such as Jade Sanctuary, Forbidden Land, etc.): *#Attacking monsters that are exactly 5 levels above you (Max EXP per kill) *#Attacking monsters of the same level or 1-2 levels below you. (Less EXP per kill but more kills = more chances to get keys and possibly more total EXP.) ''AFK Groups in Team Finder'' Another thing you can do to level quickly is to create a group that anyone on your server can join, instead of going solo. This is not a well-known concept but it works very well on server S28/29/30 from what I've seen. On some servers, players use Team Finder to create AFK groups. You can also set up a system of codes that lets your guild members know where you are leveling so they can join you and share the experience you get. The way it works is that you join/create a group for a dungeon but the name of the dungeon is actually a code for an area where players commonly leave their characters overnight. I talk about this in detail in the Dungeon Codes section below. Being in a group gives you more TOTAL EXP even though you receive less EXP per kill. It's been tested by many players. The extra EXP you make depends on how fast your teammates kill their npcs. A rough estimate is that you make at least 20% more EXP by being in a group with another player that is close to your level. Naturally, with more teammates on Auto-Combat, you should make more EXP. Before you go AFK, make the necessary preparations: stock up on potion and runestones, use a few EXP runes, etc. If you run out of these materials while you are AFK, you and your teammates will make less EXP than you could. Notes: *''In fields/main (outside) areas:'' join the group that is attacking the SAME monster that you are, not just any group in your area. Look for players close to you and join their team or create a new team if no one is around. *''In Ancient Lands (Septa or Cloudy) or VoD:'' join a team, don't turn on Auto-combat (AC) yet and see if you get exp by looking at your EXP box at the lower right corner of the screen. If so, then turn on AC. *If all of the teams are full, create a new team in Team Finder and change the loot setting to "Free-for-All", other players will have a chance of joining it and collecting the loot close to them. ''AFK Dungeon Group Codes (Lv 60+) On server S28/S29/S30, I invented "codes" to create groups based on dungeon names. The main advantages of setting dungeon codes is that you get more EXP as the amount of players in your group increases and other players can know which AFK group is for which area just by looking at the dungeon name in Team Finder. It's a great way to get extra EXP on peaceful servers. One of the disadvantages of this system is that players on your server know that you are online AND which zone you are in. If you have enemies or random griefers on your server, you are giving away your online status and location by joining a coded team finder group, which makes it easier for your enemies to kill you while you are away from the keyboard. In this sense, you lose a bit of anonimity so it's up to you to decide if this system could work for your guild or your server. There are solutions to this issue though. If your guild is at war with other guilds or if your server is generally hostile, create "Team Arena" groups in Team Finders instead of using the dungeon codes below. As a STAR1+ player, you also have the possibility of activating Safe Mode from the Auto-Combat menu to prevent other players from killing you. Be warned, this feature costs 1 cash per hour of use. The reason I chose to use dungeons instead of events to create the groups is that now and then, some players actually wanted to do events in a group, so it might confuse these players to use an event name for an AFK team. It might be different on your server but very few people group to do dungeons any more on servers S28/29/30. So by creating a dungeon group, it will be obvious to everyone on the server that the group is for a leveling team. If you create a new group, I just want to repeat that it's very important to set the loot mode to "Free-for-All" so that players can at least collect all loot that drops close to their character with auto-collect (STAR3 feature). If you leave the setting as "Team Share", none of the team members will be able to get loot. 'Codes' Here are the suggested codes for lv 60+ leveling areas... ''format: dungeon name in Team Finder (difficulty setting, if applicable) = area and floor where players are "AFKing" on Auto-Combat (specific mob to kill). *Abyssal Quarry (any diff) = Jade Sanctuary (Lv 65 Wind Wolves) *Abandonned Cellar (Easy) = Forbidden Land (L66 Bone Zombies) *Abandonned Cellar (Hard) = Forbidden Land (L68 Ghouls) *Abandonned Cellar (Elite) = Fordidden Land (L70 Souleaters) *Infernal City (any difficulty) = Valley of Death (VoD) *Subterranean Prison (any difficulty) = Moonlight Island (all mobs) *Ley Line Source (Easy) = Septa Sacrarium 1F *Ley Line Source (Hard) = Septa Sacrarium B1 *Ley Line Source (Elite) = Septa Sacrarium B2 *Forgotten Temple (Easy) = Cloudy Reach 1F *Forgotten Temple (Hard) = Cloudy Reach 2F *Forgotten Temple (Elite) = Cloudy Reach 3F *Proving Grounds (any difficulty) = Imperial Palace (all mobs) *Eternal Astral Realm (Easy) = Misty Forest L1 *Eternal Astral Realm (Hard) = Misty Forest L2 *Eternal Astral Realm (Elite) = Misty Forest L3 *Eternal Astral Realm (Heroic) = Misty Forest L4 *Sacred Grove (any diff) = Tranquil Bay *Team Arena = Ash Abyss/Arcane Caverns ---- Leveling Areas Now that we've discussed dungeon codes, let's take a look at which areas are better according to your level. In general, the pattern from Lv 40-70 is to select areas where the monsters are exactly 5 levels above your character's level. This changes when you reach lvl 70, the monsters might only have a few levels more than your character. Here are suggested leveling areas and strategies according to your character's level. ''Lv 1 - 40'' *1-30: do your Main/Side quests, no need to do dailies except for "The Game" in Forrester. Takes only a few hours of gameplay. *30-40: keep doing your Main/Side quests and start doing dailies in Arbor Valley (30-35) and Holy Grounds (35-40) and "The Game" until 50. ''Lv 40 - 50'' *40-45: Do your daily quests in Castia Corridor when you're at the keyboard and AFK at the Lv 45 "Highwaymen" in Crater Plains. ''Lv 50 - 60'' *(need feedback) ''Lv 60 - 70'' *60-64: Lv 65 "Wind Wolves" in Jade Sanctuary for AFK exp & keys if you have auto-loot (Star 3 feature). *''(Alternative)'' Forbidden Land (FL): at Lv 61-62: kill L66 "Bone Zombies", then Lv 63-68: kill L68 "Ghouls". *65-70: L70 "Souleaters" in Forbidden Land. *''(Alternative) 68-74: Valley of Death (VoD) for great AFK exp but consumes a lot of runestones and/or HP/MP potions. ''Lv 70 - 80 *70-74: Moonlight Island (low-cost exp) or *''(Alternative) 70-74: Valley of Death (VoD), for AFK exp w/ runestones and/or HP/MP potions. *74+: Septa 1F (AFK exp with runestones). Go to the upper floors as you progress in level. ''Lv 80 - 90 *80-84: Septa Sacrarium B1 or Imperial Palace ("Dark Singers" near NPC Millie) for AFK exp. *Misty Forrest (for AFK exp) or Cloudy Reach (with symbiosis). Go to the upper levels/floors as you progress in level. ''Lv 90 - 100'' *91-100: Tranquil Bay (L96-100 mobs) Lv 100-110 *Ash Abyss (for AFK exp w/ runestones and/or HP/MP potions) Go to the upper floors as you progress in level. Lv 110-120 *Arcane Caverns (for AFK exp w/ runestones and/or HP/MP potions) ---- Well, I hope it's not too confusing. Let me know what you all think about the points I discuss! Cheers, Madamwest (profile | wall | ) 12:28, January 7, 2014 (UTC) Category:Blog posts Category:User:Madamwest Category:Content